


a baseball, a home run, and memory loss

by writerdragonfly



Series: [keep us together] [11]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Amnesia fic, M/M, Prompt Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-01
Updated: 2016-12-01
Packaged: 2018-09-03 11:31:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8710960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writerdragonfly/pseuds/writerdragonfly
Summary: Barry can't remember anything past deciding to go to Starling City...





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [everyperfectsummer](https://archiveofourown.org/users/everyperfectsummer/gifts).



> Prompted by the lovely Stars. <3
> 
> This was going to be a regular Coldflash fic but then Nora was like, no, I want in. So, Noraverse amnesia fic.

It’s an accident. A simple, ordinary accident. Barry isn’t even  _ running _ when it happens, just walking Merlin past the baseball field when the ball smacks him upside the head. 

 

The thing is, other than the dog, he’s  _ alone _ when it happens.

 

-x-

 

He comes to with a tongue licking his face, the leash pulling at his arm. He doesn’t recognize the dog, but it’s obvious by the leash that he’d been walking him whenever...  _ whatever _ ... happens.

 

He takes measure of himself-- _ baffled  _ by the ab definition  _ and _ the ring on his finger--but other than the headache, he doesn’t notice anything wrong.

 

“--’m fine,” he tells the kids who gather around him, apologizing for an errant baseball. He doesn’t think they believe him, but he manages to walk away anyway.

 

He doesn’t have his cell phone on him--something that feels like a huge mistake--but he thinks he knows the way home from the park at least. 

 

It takes nearly half an hour to walk home, but it’s a relief when he finally gets there.

 

Iris is standing on the front porch with a chubby baby in her arms, a cell phone to her ear.

 

“ _ Iris _ ,” Barry says, and he feels a sense of wonderment because surely he married her!

 

“Barry! They’ve been looking everywhere for you!” she says as she turns to face him. 

 

“Take your godson,” she says, and his chest feels tight at the words, handing over the baby and turning back to her phone, “He’s here. Merlin’s with him.”

 

“Merlin? Is that his name?” Barry blurts out, and Iris freezes and turns to face him again.

 

“Yes,” Iris chokes out, her eyes wide, “Merlin is your dog’s name.”

 

If he’s forgotten...  _ his dog _ ... what else has he forgotten?

 

_ Who  _ else?

 

-x-

 

Iris sits him down on the couch in the living room, and Barry’s almost startled to realize the entire room is full of pictures of people he’s never met.

 

_ Children _ he’s never met.

 

There’s a picture of a houseful of people, laughing and smiling.

 

Just what he always wanted, and he doesn’t remember  _ any of it. _

 

-x-

 

“Len’s going to be here soon, Bare,” Iris says, the baby back on her hip.

 

“Who’s Len?” Barry asks her, and he doesn’t like the way her face falls.

 

“I... What’s the last thing you remember, Barry?”

 

“I was going to Starling City... there was something I needed to do.”

 

“Oh,  _ honey _ ,” Iris says, and she sits down next to him. The baby settles in her lap and reaches out with one hand.

 

-x-

 

“Dad!” a girl’s voice cuts through his thoughts, and he looks up from the baby on his lap to see a teenager rushing toward him.

 

_ Dad? _

 

“Nora, wait,” Iris interrupts just before the girl reaches him.

 

_ Nora? _

 

“What? Is something--”

 

“He doesn’t remember anything since before he met Oliver Queen,” Iris says, and the teenager--Nora--deflates.

 

“He doesn’t... he doesn’t remember me?”

 

“I’m sorry, Nora. We’re going to figure this out--I promise.”

 

The teenager runs up the stairs, and Barry can hear her crying.

 

_ Dad _ , she’d said. About  _ him _ .

 

He never thought, he always wanted, and now... he just doesn’t  _ know. _

 

-x-

 

Len turns out to be an attractive slightly older man holding hands with a toddler. The toddler immediately runs to Barry’s side as surely as the teenager had, babbling at him with recognizable speed.

 

He doesn’t know the kid, but the kid doesn’t seem to care.

 

“Where’s Nora?” Len asks, and Iris answers without hesitation.

 

“She has the baby upstairs. Barry doesn’t remember her.”

 

“He doesn’t--”

 

“I don’t even know who you are?” Barry admits, and the man’s face just  _ shuts down _ . No emotion,  _ nothing _ .

 

It hurts, seeing his face like that. Hurts something deep inside him. Like heartbreak.

 

-x-

 

“I’ll take care of them,” Iris reassures Len, his  _ fiancee,  _  “Just keep me updated.”

 

-x-

 

STAR Labs doesn’t look anything like Barry remembers. Half the size and rearranged from everything he’s ever known about it.

 

There’s not even a public space anymore.

 

“We’ll do an MRI first,” the doctor who meets them says, brushing her hair behind her ear as she speaks.

 

“He said he got hit with a  _ baseball _ ,” Len tells her. 

 

“A... not anything, I don’t know, more serious?”

 

“Not that he remembers  _ anything _ .”

 

“Okay... Okay, I’ll check for brain damage, then.”

 

-x-

 

“Nora is your daughter,” Doctor Snow tells him, “you found out about her when she was ten.”

 

He can’t imagine how he must have reacted. He hopes it was a good reaction, hopes she never thought she wasn’t wanted. Because he doesn’t remember her, not right now, but he  _ wants _ to.

 

-x-

 

“Len is your fiancee, which I know Iris told you. You’ve been together for years.”

 

Years. Years with someone who he  _ loved _ who loved him  _ back _ and he doesn’t... remember.

 

-x-

 

“Michael is Len’s son,” she says, “and yours too.”

 

_ His kid too _ . It’s a blessing to him, at least, that the toddler didn’t realize anything was wrong. 

 

-x-

 

“Now, I know this is a lot to take in, but there’s more,” Doctor Snow says, “it’s about  _ you _ .”

 

-x-

 

For all he believed in things that were beyond  _ human _ , he never expected to  _ be _ one of them. He didn’t... he doesn’t...

 

But he’s a  _ hero _ , Doctor Snow said.

 

“But more importantly, you’re  _ Barry Allen, _ ” Snow says, and he hadn’t even realized he’d spoken aloud.

 

-x-

 

Barry wakes up with a piercing headache in the middle of STAR Labs. It takes a minute for his vision to clear, but when it does the first thing he sees is Len.

 

“Why am I here?” he asks him, “wasn’t I walking the puppy?”


End file.
